Webinar: Detroit is the Place to Be with Mark Binelli

Posted on February 24, 2014

Midwest ELGL has lined up another fascinating webinar for local government enthusiasts. Mark your calendars for April 23rd at 2 PM CST (12pm Pacific) for a discussion with Detroit native Mark Binelli, author of Detroit City Is The Place To Be. Binelli’s book is an autobiography of the city that frequently draws national attention and captivates headlines. Don’t forget to register for this intriguing opportunity to interact and discuss what Detroit means for communities across the nation.

“When I got there, I realized Detroit had become this poster city for the recession. I mean, reporters were coming [from all over the] country, all over the world, really, to look at the place, and I felt like, as someone who’d grown up there, I could really bring a little bit more nuance to the story, and not tell the same stories that are being told over and over — and that includes things like humor. I mean, Detroit is a very surreal, weird place, and I thought a lot of that was being missed by reporters who were just coming in for an afternoon or a day or two.”

“One of the problems with Detroit is, you know, it was a city that at its peak, population was 2 million. Now with this last census, in 2010, it’s down to just over 700,000, so you have all this vacant land, all of these abandoned buildings, what do you do with it? I mean, one of the more intriguing things that’s been talked about, not much progress has been made so far, has been this sort of right-sizing initiative.”

“It’s classical tragedy in lots of ways. In this case, the character is the city. You see the seeds of the character’s destruction. You see those tragic flaws early on, and it’s completely undone, and now we are at the third act, and we will see what happens.”

Mark your calendars and join us on April 23rd at 11:00 am pacific time!